DETROIT (AP) — Two men and a woman were charged Thursday with murder and kidnapping in the abduction and killing of a 13-year-old Detroit boy whose body was found a week ago in a vacant lot.
Gregory Walker, Lillian Roberts and Earnest Coleman all are charged with murder, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, torture and gun crime, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.
Walker is accused of choking Deontae Mitchell to death with help from Roberts and Coleman. Coleman had been charged with kidnapping last weekend.
“This whole thing is hard to believe,” Worthy said at a news conference. “This case shocked us all. There’s not a whole lot that shocks seasoned prosecutors, but there are some things you just cannot explain.”
A cousin told police that Deontae picked up some money dropped by a man outside of an eastside market May 31. Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man, who grabbed his arm and forced him into a car.
Deontae’s body was found a week ago in a vacant lot in Detroit.
A cause of death is being investigated.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the three had attorneys in this case.
Walker was arrested in Ohio, extradited to Detroit and pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating probation and other crimes stemming from a 2013 case.
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DETROIT (AP) — The Latest on the discovery of a young boy’s body in Detroit and the arrest of a suspect found in Ohio (all times local):
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10:25 a.m.
Police say the body of a young boy has been found in Detroit, two days after a 13-year-old was abducted.
Chief James Craig says the medical examiner will determine if it’s the body of Deontae Mitchell. But at the same news conference Thursday, he offered his prayers to the boy’s family.
Craig called it a “horrific crime.”
Deontae’s cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw a man drop money while urinating outside a market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and they rode away.
Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed his arm and forced him into a car. The chief suspect, Gregory Walker, has been arrested in Toledo, Ohio.
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9:40 a.m.
Police say a 45-year-old man suspected in the abduction of a 13-year-old boy who was snatched outside a Detroit neighborhood market has been arrested in Ohio.
Michigan State Police Lt. Calvin Hart on Thursday morning confirmed the arrest of Gregory Walker of Detroit, but didn’t have details about where he was found.
Investigators cordoned off a crime scene on Detroit’s east side, but details weren’t immediately released.
Police say Deontae Mitchell’s cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw an apparently drunken man drop money while urinating outside the market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and they rode away.
Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man police believe to be Walker, grabbed by his arm and forced into a car.
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(Photo Source: AP)
